Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that there is an awkward and painful stage of sorting through the deceased’s belongings. Photographer Jennifer Loeber explores this tension in an exquisite photo essay of the strange reality of objects outliving the flesh.

She writes:

I found myself deeply overwhelmed by the need to keep even the most mundane of my Mom’s belongings when she died suddenly this past February. Instead of providing comfort and good memories they became a source of deep sadness and anxiety and I knew the only way I would be able to move past that was to focus on a way to interact with them cathartically.

I had recently become active on Instagram and realized that utilizing the casual aspects of sharing on the app was a way to diminish my own sentimentality toward the objects my Mom left behind. Each image is paired with an archival image of her that speaks to its subject.